Nice. "Duke CEO: Ratepayers will cover coal ash cleanup". They pollute - we pay????

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.wral.com/duke-ceo-ratepayers-will-cover-coal-ash-cleanup/13460600/

"Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good said Friday that ratepayers will shoulder most of the cost of emptying out the utility's 31 coal ash ponds in North Carolina.

Governor Pat McCrory, a former Duke executive who benefited from more than a million dollars in direct and indirect campaign donations from the utility and its employees, declined to take a position on Good's statement.

Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan stressed the company, not its customers, will pay to clean up the company's recent 39,000-ton coal ash spill in the Dan River.

But if the state requires the utility to close down and move its other existing ash pits, then ratepayers, not shareholders, will likely pay most of that cost."

________________snip_____________________________more to read.

bolded paragraph above is something, isn't it.....

Awful to see what's happening to NC....

[PowerToThePeople]

1. duh

Can't have the executives and share holders burden that cost.

Obviously they love socialism. Socialized loses that is.

[hatrack]

2. How's that "Making Government Work Like A Business" thing working out for ya?

[nclib]

3. Oh, and I like this part...

"Duke Energy's profits for the past fiscal year were $2.7 billion, with shareholder earnings up 25 percent over the prior year"

$2.7 Billion. And they estimate it will be 4.5 to 5.5 over 10 years to fix their mess, but they wouldn't want to lose a penny of their profits.

[jsr]

4. That's the beauty of it

[n2doc]

5. Solar for everyone

Then these bastards might sing a different tune.

[marions ghost]

6. Sounds like this is business as usual in NC

Sheehan referred WRAL News to remarks by Duke Energy CFO Steve Young on a recent corporate earnings call, talking about environmental compliance costs.

"Approximately 85 percent of our expected environmental compliance investments will be in the Carolinas and Indiana. Both of these jurisdictions have a strong track record of allowing utilities to recover costs related to environmental compliance investments," Young said.

Cost "recovery" means a utility's ability to charge its costs back to customers in higher rates, rather than taking costs out of company profits, which would mean lower earnings for shareholders.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. Ah! I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.......

[WorseBeforeBetter]

8. A PO'd kick from Raleigh. (n/t)

[libnnc]

9. God-A-Mighty......

[mathematic]

10. You also pay for coal mining and nobody pays for the carbon you use

Your electric bill is not a donation to a children's hospital.

[alarimer]

11. Meet the environmental regulator who hates science

This guy is in charge of the regulators. He is a piece of shit.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/05/meet_the_environmental_regulator_who_hates_science_john_skvarlas_coal_ash_mess/

Upon entering office early last year, Skvarla wrote a number of caveats into DENR’s mission statement and aggressively promoted the agency as serving the interests of its “customers.” According to Michael Burkhard, who left DENR in late May, Skvarla’s management left little to interpret: The agency was now serving the interests of industry. “The message was that we shouldn’t hold anyone accountable or responsible,” Burkhard says. “They told us that industry and business do a better job of regulating themselves than we do.”


More depressing reading at the link